Disc problems

I have completed pass number two in the hayfield.  I have a few more passes to complete before the field is ready for planting.  This is taking much longer than I anticipated, both because I can only go so fast and because I don't get a large block to time each day to pull the disc.  I think back to being a software developer when I lamented that I could write so much more code if I didn't have so many meetings and distractions.

Also slowing me down is that I lost a part from my tractor the day I finished the second pass.  One arm of the three point hitch has a threaded rod that is used to adjust that arm's height so both arms match their height.  Sometime when discing the rod unscrewed from both sides and is somewhere in the field.

I think I lost the rod the last day but am not 100% positive.  I can tell from the fresh dirt where I pulled disc the final day.  I searched that area plus some area around it that was from the previous day.

Nothing.

While the rod is long and thick, some of the field has been gone over more than twice and has lots of loose dirt.  Perhaps the rod is completely buried.

Curtis has a metal detector.  Over three days I walked in a tight grid pattern the area of the hayfield in question.  The last afternoon in the cold, damp, and snow flurries.  The metal detector went off frequently.  A second pass of the metal detector: nothing.  If the detector signaled twice I kicked at the loose dirt to reach hard ground.

Nothing.

All that effort and I didn't find the rod.

It was hard to search as it has started raining again recently and the field is muddy.  As I walked my mud boots collected mud making my feet heavy.  I also would gain a few inches on the bottom of the boots until I kicked the mud off, only to attract mud again.

The rod will turn up.  Maybe when I disc again.  Maybe when I harrow.  Maybe it will work its way out of the ground over time.  I prefer to find the rod sooner than later.

Fortunately I don't use the three point hitch very much.  Today I wired the two pieces of the three point arm together.  Then I pulled the disc again.   It rained again last night but I decided to try to pull the disc this afternoon.  The lower areas were wetter and the tractor would bog down until I revved the motor.  A few times I had to raise the disc up until I started going again.  I only disced for an hour until I gave up for the day.


Earlier I had added a few railroad ties to the disc to make it cut into the ground deeper.

The wired three point arm is on the right side.